Espoo - The beginning

Arriving in Espoo which will be home for the next 4 months was a good change and a base to off load excess baggage that was brought along. Leppävaara is on the brink of the city limits and surrounded by hilly, rocky pine forests. It is a 30min bus ride into Helsinki or 15min by train… I have estimated a 25min bike ride to the heart. Leppävaara is a buzz with its new shopping complex & soon to be indoor pool, a very suburban feel. You could look at it like it as a bit out of the way from the city life but it is only 15min to uni in Otaniemi & the surrounding forests are a good change from the fast lifestyle of Melbourne.

Milja’s relatives who not only put us up, but also drove us around to buy furniture and donated the rest. One thing that has been a drain on the stay and cash supply has been buying furniture as HOAS (student housing body) do not supply anything but a bare shell. This would be one problem I would advise all future International exchange students to Finland. If you have someone who has a car in Helsinki the costs are manageable, but if you do not the cost will be greatly increased. The second hand stores are usually in out of the way locations, finding a decent bed to match your budget is a challenge.

Porvoo

Porvoo is located about 1 hour from Helsinki, it is a beautiful historic town/village where is would be wonderful to plan a wedding. Porvoo Cathedral - F1 driver Miikka Häkkinen was married here… His wife also told him to give up F1 to start up a family and he did (women control this country). The cathedral was also burnt down 4 years ago by 4 Finnish men in a protest against marriage to support the F1 superstar…. Well that’s what I like to think.

Side entry

Restored roof

Storey may be told they where drunk and did not know what they where doing… still got 4years in prison & damages costs for the rest of their lives…and Miikka Häkkinen never returned to F1

Do you see it? The bricky must have been taking the piss... well...





Milja on bench in font of hobbie museum

Tampere

Tampere is one of the next biggest cities behind Helsinki and Espoo in Finland. Boasting a whopping population of about 210,000 people it is no wonder they are home to the black sausage. We are not talking about the Immigrant male population but a sausage that can only be described as not visually appetising. Put aside your fears and bite into one before washing it down with some milk as the locals do… You will find all your fears are gone once the taste hits you mouth in an experience that could only be met by haggis or black pudding.

Must see in Tampere is the industrial part of the city central the old Finlayson works which has beautiful grassed areas to sit, relax, have a game of Mölkky or in true Finnish style have a beer or three.

You can grab wet pussy in one hand...well so the dude on the bridge says.

Sitting in the main street having a few beers in a seedy pub can open your eye
s to the range of people Finland has to offer… well if your lucky you too will get a good day as there are many festivals during summer, even where people were getting dressed up as their favourite cartoon/ super heroes. If you’re a car nut you may blow a load at the amount of neat classic chevs & fords, you rice boys will also enjoy the sights.

If you are lucky you can even sit in on Christian rock beside the church...I guess its not the Finnish metal the crowd are looking for.

Dress up like this bloke...then charge people one euro to throw things at you.

Which witch?

Nurse...anyone?

Milja drinking...again.

A visit back to Tampere will see some of the more tourist sites like the amusement park & revolving restaurant.

5 Star concentration hotel

The trip had started off well as I landed in Hong Kong for a 3 hour stop over, after 3 wonderfully boring meals aboard flight 104. From Hong Kong I boarded Aeroflot 592 bound for Moscow Russia… now this was the part that I was dreading due to everyone’s concern in the choice of airline. Well the plane was in working order and the food was just as wonderfully boring as the previous flight, I also arrived in Moscow 9.5 hours later. Moscow airport is where the fun began, on arrival at the transfers desk I was told my flight had been cancelled, but due to be being a ‘special’ customer I will get put up in a hotel.

Special customer: A person whom does not hold a Russian visa or passport.

Now after waiting 45min being pushed and pulled through passport control I was finally escorted with 9 other detainees to a ‘luxury’ Hotel all of 2min from the airport where we had been promised breakfast & lunch. The double bed suits where nice and the shower a refreshing break before I could finally eat some real food I could see from my window. Well breakfast time arrived and the guard at the end of the hall was joined by another to escort us to our private dinning room not the wonderful spread I could see from my window. Like a bad film we were eating bread, bad coffee and juice that tasted like cough syrup.

Reminder: in all Russian hotels smoking is allowed, it is even accepted that hotel staff do it.

Security was quick to finish the detainees up and take us back to the rooms. The escorting was equally as funny and relaxed that they had no idea when a few went missing, that being said they already had everyone’s passports so a runner was not a wise option. Lunch was 3 courses and a dessert, cold bean salad, brown water soup, meat with veg and a sweet cake. It was hard to determine what was what apart from the veggies, a what does not kill you only makes you stronger take on life was applied.